Bryan Magee

Bryan Edgar Magee (; 12 April 1930 – 26 July 2019) was a British philosopher, broadcaster, politician, and author, known for bringing philosophy to a popular audience.

Magee influenced popular culture with his efforts to make philosophy accessible to the layman, especially as a broadcaster on the BBC, interviewing a number of leading philosophers. In parallel, he was interested in politics and was elected as a Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP) for the Leyton parliament constituency in the February 1974 UK general election. He also wrote books, including The Philosophy of Schopenhauer, first published in 1983, and revised in 1997. His interests included the life, thought, and works of the composer Richard Wagner.

Early life

Magee was born in 1930 in Hoxton, London to working-class parents; his father, Frederick Knut (or Canute) Magee (1902–1947) was a clothier's manager, and his mother, Sheila Kathleen (or Catherine; b. 1903) was daughter of labourer Joseph Sidney Lynch. His upbringing was poor; having been born within a few hundred yards of where his paternal grandparents were born, he was brought up in a flat above the family clothing shop, where, until the age of five, he shared a bed with his elder sister, Joan. He was close to his father, but had a difficult relationship with his abusive and overbearing mother, who was "cold and distant". He was evacuated to Market Harborough in Leicestershire, during World War II, but when he returned to London, much of Hoxton had been bombed flat. Magee was educated at Christ's Hospital school on a London County Council scholarship.

During his National Service, he served in the British Army, in the Intelligence Corps, His friends at Oxford included Robin Day, William Rees-Mogg, Jeremy Thorpe and Michael Heseltine. While at university, Magee was elected president of the Oxford Union. He later became an honorary fellow at Keble College.

At Oxford, Magee had mixed with poets as well as politicians and in 1951 published a volume of verse through the Fortune Press. The publisher did not pay its writers and expected them to buy a certain number of copies themselves – a similar deal had been struck with such writers as Dylan Thomas and Philip Larkin for their first anthologies. The slim volume was dedicated to the memory of Richard Wagner, with a quote from Rilke's Duino Elegies: ("... beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror, that we are still able to bear"). Magee said later: "I'm rather ashamed of the poems now, although I have written poems since which I haven't published, which I secretly think are rather good. It has always been a dimension of what I do." Later he also wrote fiction, including a spy novel To Live in Danger in 1960 and then a long work Facing Death. The latter, initially composed in the 1960s but not published until 1977, was shortlisted for an award by The Yorkshire Post.

In 1955, he began a year studying philosophy at Yale University on a postgraduate fellowship. He taught philosophy at Balliol College, Oxford for a period but was not enamoured of the analytic philosophy then in vogue there.

He was eventually elected MP for Leyton at the February 1974 general election. In Making the Most of It, Magee wrote that he decided that the Commons was not suitable for him when he was sitting next to Renee Short, as she constantly interrupted a Conservative to call him a "twit". He resolved not to spend much time on Parliamentary debates, and preferred to make use of the Commons library for his own research and to act efficiently on correspondence from his constituents. He sometimes went out to the theatre on an evening and returned to Parliament in time to vote, having missed the debate.

Magee was on the right of the Labour Party: he opposed nationalisation, nuclear disarmament and friendly relations with the Communist countries. He stated that he "detested" Harold Wilson as devoid of principle, and criticised Callaghan for not understanding the role of negotiations with trade unions. Early in Thatcher's career, Magee had friendly relations with her and the two discussed Karl Popper's philosophy, but he later described her as "limited, narrow, even blinkered". As a member of the Labour Party's Manifesto Group, which advocated unity of all Labour MPs behind the election manifesto, he wrote the pamphlet What We Must Do.

From 1981, Magee found himself out of tune with the Labour Party's direction under Michael Foot, and he decided to leave after he could not bring himself to oppose the Thatcher Government's agenda of curtailing the power of trade unions. On 22 January 1982, he resigned the Labour whip and in March joined the defection of centrist Labour MPs to the newly founded Social Democratic Party. He lost his seat at the 1983 general election. He contributed to the 1980 book Wicked Beyond Belief, which was published three weeks before David Cooper was released from prison.

Magee returned to writing and broadcasting, which, indeed, he had continued during his parliamentary career and served on various boards and committees. He notably resigned as chairman of the Arts Council music panel in 1994 in protest at funding cuts.

He returned to scholarship at Oxford, first as a fellow at Wolfson, then at New College. And extensively revised versions of all the discussions would be made available in the 1971 book Modern British Philosophy. Karl Popper would appear in the series twice and Magee would soon after write an introductory book on his philosophy that was first published in 1973.

In 1978, Magee presented 15 dialogues with noted philosophers for BBC Television in a series called Men of Ideas. As The Daily Telegraph noted, this series "achieved the near-impossible feat of presenting to a mass audience recondite issues of philosophy without compromising intellectual integrity or losing ratings" and "attracted a steady one million viewers per show." Extensively revised versions of the dialogues within the Men of Ideas series (which featured Iris Murdoch) were originally published in a book of the same name that is now sold under the title of Talking Philosophy. Neither this series nor its 1987 'sequel' are available for purchase by home users but most of the episodes are freely available on YouTube.

Another BBC television series, The Great Philosophers, followed in 1987. In this series, Magee discussed the major historical figures of Western philosophy with fifteen contemporary philosophers. The series covered the philosophies of Plato, Aristotle, and Descartes, among others, including a discussion with Peter Singer on the philosophy of Marx and Hegel, and ending with a discussion with John Searle on the philosophy of Wittgenstein. Extensively revised versions of the dialogues were published in a book of the same name that was published that same year. The series was repeated on BBC Four in October and November 2025, and also made available on iPlayer. Magee's 1998 book The Story of Thought (also published as The Story of Philosophy) would also cover the history of Western philosophy. This remains one of the most substantial and wide-ranging treatments of the thinker and assesses in-depth Schopenhauer's influence on Wittgenstein, Wagner, and other creative writers. Magee also addresses Schopenhauer's thoughts on homosexuality and the influence of Buddhism on his thought. This essentially offered an introduction to philosophy in autobiographical form. The book was involved in a libel lawsuit as a result of Magee repeating the rumour that Ralph Schoenman, a controversial associate of Bertrand Russell during the philosopher's final decade, had been planted by the CIA in an effort to discredit Russell. Schoenman successfully sued Magee for libel in the UK, with the result that the first printing of the British edition of the book was pulped. A second defamation suit, filed in California against Random House, was settled in 2001. The allegations were expunged by settlement, and a new edition was issued and provided to more than 700 academic and public libraries. In Confessions of a Philosopher, Magee charts his own philosophical development in an autobiographical context. He also emphasizes the importance of Schopenhauer's philosophy as a serious attempt to solve philosophical problems. In addition to this, he launches a critique of analytic philosophy, particularly in its linguistic form, over three chapters, contesting its fundamental principles and lamenting its influence.

Magee had a particular interest in the life, thought, and music of Richard Wagner and wrote two notable books on the composer and his world, Aspects of Wagner (1968; rev. 1988), and Wagner and Philosophy (2000). In Aspects of Wagner Magee "outlines the range and depth of Wagner's achievement, and shows how his sensational and erotic music expresses the repressed and highly charged contents of the psyche. He also examines Wagner's detailed stage directions, and the prose works in which he formulated his ideas, and sheds interesting new light on his anti-semitism." The revised edition includes a fresh chapter on "Wagner as Music".

In 2016, approaching his 86th birthday, Magee had his book Ultimate Questions published by Princeton University. Writing in The Independent, Julian Baggini said "Magee doesn't always match his clarity of expression with rigour of argument, sometimes ignoring his own principle that the feeling 'Yes, surely this must be right' is 'not a validation, not even a credential'. But this can be excused. Plato and Aristotle claimed that philosophy begins with wonder. Magee is proof that for some, the wonder never dies, it only deepens."

In 2018, Magee, then living in one room in a nursing home in Oxford, was interviewed by Jason Cowley of New Statesman and discussed his life and his 2016 book Ultimate Questions. Magee said that he believed he lacked originality and, until Ultimate Questions, had struggled to make an original contribution to philosophy, saying:

He went on to discuss his continuing interest in politics and current affairs and to describe the Brexit yes vote as a "historic mistake".

Personal life

In 1953, Magee was appointed to a teaching job in Sweden and while there met Ingrid Söderlund, a pharmacist in the university laboratory. They married the following year and had one daughter, Gunnela, and, in time, three grandchildren.

Death

Magee died on 26 July 2019, at the age of 89, at St Luke's Hospital in Headington, Oxford, the care home in which he had spent his final years.

The last of Magee's books to be published during his lifetime – Making the Most of It (2018) – closes:

A celebration of his life was held in the chapel of Keble College, Oxford, on 29 October 2019. The event was opened by Sir Jonathan Phillips, Warden of Keble College, and was introduced by Magee's executor, the academic, author, and editor Henry Hardy. It included audio and video clips of Magee, music chosen by him and played by the Amherst Sextet, and addresses by David Owen and Simon Callow. The music choices were the sextet from Strauss's Capriccio, the largo from Elgar's Serenade for Strings and the prelude to Wagner's Tristan und Isolde. The addresses by Owen and Callow were published together with a notice of Magee's life by Hardy in the Oldie.

Filmography

Television

Men of Ideas (BBC, 1978), host
Thinking Aloud (1984–1985), host
The Great Philosophers (BBC, 1987), host

Bibliography

Books

(Some available for loan via Internet Archive)

Crucifixion and Other Poems, 1951, Fortune Press, ASIN: B0039UQCKK
Go West, Young Man, Eyre And Spottiswoode, 1958,
To Live in Danger, Hutchinson, 1960 (softcover Random House )
The Democratic Revolution, Bodley Head, 1964,
Towards 2000: The World We Make, Macdonald & Co, 1965, ASIN B0000CMK0Y
One in Twenty: A Study of Homosexuality in Men and Women, Stein and Day, 1966. (later published as The Gays Among Us)
The Television Interviewer, Macdonald, 1966, ASIN B0000CN1D4
Aspects of Wagner, Secker and Warburg, 1968; rev. 2nd ed, 1988, Oxford University Press, 1988,
Modern British Philosophy, Secker and Warburg, 1971, ; Oxford University Press,
Facing Death, William Kimber & Co. Ltd., 1977,
Men of Ideas: Some Creators of Contemporary Philosophy, Oxford University Press, 1978 (later titled Talking Philosophy: Dialogues With Fifteen Leading Philosophers)
The Philosophy of Schopenhauer, Oxford University Press, 1983 (revised and expanded, 1997),
The Great Philosophers: An Introduction to Western Philosophy, BBC Books 1987,
On Blindness: Letters between Bryan Magee and Martin Milligan, Oxford University Press, 1996, (also published as Sight Unseen, Phoenix House, 1998, )
Confessions of a Philosopher, Random House, 1997, reprinted 1998,
The Story of Thought: The Essential Guide to the History of Western Philosophy, The Quality Paperback Bookclub, 1998, (later titled The Story of Philosophy, 2001, )
Wagner and Philosophy, Penguin, 2001, (also published as The Tristan Chord: Wagner and Philosophy, Owl Books, 2001 )
Clouds of Glory, Pimlico, 2004,
Growing up in a War, Pimlico, 2007,
Ultimate Questions, Princeton University Press, 2016,
Making the Most of It, Studio 28, 2018,

Journal articles

At JSTOR – free to read online with registration:

"Richard Wagner Died 13 February 1883. Producing a New 'Ring The Musical Times, vol. 124, no. 1680, 1983, pp. 86–89 – interview with Peter Hall.
"Schopenhauer and Professor Hamlyn" Philosophy, vol. 60, no. 233, 1985, pp. 389–391.
"A Note on J. L. Austin and the Drama". Philosophy, vol. 74, no. 287, 1999, pp. 119–121.
"What I Believe" Philosophy, vol. 77, no. 301, 2002, pp. 407–419..
"Philosophy's Neglect of the Arts" Philosophy, vol. 80, no. 313, 2005, pp. 413–422.
"The Secret of Tristan and Isolde" Philosophy, vol. 82, no. 320, 2007, pp. 339–346.
"Intimations of Mortality" Philosophy, vol. 86, no. 335, 2011, pp. 31–39.
."Clarity in Philosophy". Philosophy. vol. 89 no. 349, 2014,, pp. 451–62

;Other written works

"Scenes from my childhood" in: (ed.) Griffiths, A. Phillips, The Impulse to Philosophise (Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplements, 33) (1993)
"Sense and nonsense", Prospect, February 20, 2000
"Pensées by Bryan Magee". New Statesman. 28 July 2021 (a selection made from his notebooks)

References

External links

Extracts of Homosexuals (1964) and Lesbians (1965) posted on YouTube by the British Film Institute
Photograph of Magee by Sijmen Hendriks, Amsterdam, 2011
MP3 files of Magee's interviews with philosophers
"Philosophy: Bryan Magee" from Free Thinking, BBC Radio 3, 2016
"Bryan Magee: a tribute" by David Herman for TheArticle. (26 July 2019)
"Archive on 4 Bryan Magee – Man of Ideas", BBC Sounds (9 September 2023)